When Goal-Setting Forges Ahead but Stops Short

Arbeitspapier

In this study, we use at scale randomized control trial among 18,000 secondary students in 181 schools in Tanzania (Zanzibar) to examine the effects of personal best goal-settings on students' academic performance. We also offer non-financial rewards to students to meet the goals they set. We find that goal-setting has a significant positive impact on student time use, study effort, and self-discipline. However, we do not find any significant impact of goalsetting on test scores. We find that, this could be partially because about 2/3rd of students do not set realistic goals. Third, we find weaker results on time use, study effort, and discipline when we combine goal-setting with non-financial rewards, suggesting that typing goal-setting to extrinsic incentives could weaken its impact. We also find that female students improved on outcomes much more than male students and that students coming from relatively weaker socio-economic backgrounds improved more than their counterparts.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13188

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education and Research Institutions: General ; Education and Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Economywide Country Studies: Africa
• Subject: goal-setting ; recognition rewards ; student performance ; Zanzibar

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Islam, Asadul ; Kwon, Sungoh ; Masood, Eema ; Prakash, Nishith ; Sabarwal, Shwetlena ; Saraswat, Deepak
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/216500
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET